Burning Woman Suicide Goes Up In Smoke

Authorities believe a 39-year-old driver seen engulfed in flames had actually set her own self on fire.

She then deliberately crashed her vehicle onto a 40-foot-tall suspension bridge, left it there ablaze, and jumped.

And yet she still didn’t die.

The distraught leaper, whose name has been withheld, is now in critical condition at a Portland-area hospital. Police say her family had reported her missing just days before her fiery flirtation with suicide went awry.

The bizarre incident began to dramatically unfold on Thursday, March 12, 2015, when a 911 caller first reported a vehicle on fire being recklessly operated by a female motorist.

Then, when the auto suddenly swerved and collided into a guardrail, other witnesses saw the subject leap out, shed her burning clothes, and run to the edge of the bridge’s pedestrian walkway.

At that point, traffic came to a dead halt as someone tried to grab the woman so she wouldn’t fall, while others put out the flames in her car with fire extinguishers.

Regardless, she was still able to free herself from the would-be rescuers, and jumped.

Attempting suicide is technically a crime in most U.S. states, although those found guilty of the offense are not incarcerated in conventional prisons but, rather, confined to psychiatric centers for a period of “observation.”

However, this unique case involved endangerment to passersby and destruction of public property, so it’s not yet known how or if the burning woman will additionally be charged.

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With the purpose of writing about true crime in an authoritative, fact-based manner, veteran journalists J. J. Maloney and J. Patrick O’Connor launched Crime Magazine in November of 1998. Their goal was to cover all aspects of true crime: Read More